Hello all,
I'm a user switching from Wintel, I found someone who's selling his late 2009 mini and decided to give it a go.

I've read somewhere that the late 2009 has a 320gb drive running at 5400rpm, but it has 2 platters of 160gb each. The reviewer said this is almost as fast as a 7200rpm drive but I haven't come across this assumption anywhere else, nor have I seen that it does in fact have 2 platters to begin with.

My PC currently has a WD Raptor (not velociraptor, I have the 2006 model) at 10000rpm, so I believe I will need a faster HDD. I just don't want to spend money on a drive that has similar speeds as the one my mini will have, if the statement of 2x160gb platters is correct. HDD space wise I'm not concerned since I'll be using external drives anyway.

now if space is not a concern I would look into an intel 80gb ssd. they can be had for about 200 and are truly very fast. I use them and find them to be really nice ssds. best of all they work they are stable they do not brick_________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

it is an intel ssd inside the case. I have two they are in a raid they smoke._________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

philiparcario thanks for your advice on the WD scorpio, thats the one I'll get!
The SSD looks nice, I read a couple of reviews about it as well but its quite expensive since its SSD, I think I'll stick to the scorpio, the money saved can be later invested into a NAS!

I like the NAS you use, I'm looking for something that holds at least 2 disks, I never seem to trust single disk setups. I want something that makes me sleep relaxed at night, since I lost data from the ONLY (out of 7 in that system) disk that I hadn't backed up!

200 bucks is fine for the job, however for starters I'll probably use my old machine with a few disks inside in raid setup.

Also I dont really trust that Samsung tbh.. I tend to prefer WD but that comes down to personal preference I guess!

I've heard nothing but good things about the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive. Good balance between price/performance if you're not willing to sacrifice cost and capacity for pure speed that an SSD provides.